Spy Clues

Spy Clues are Important

—Get to know the spy clues. From businesses to governments, and even in homes, low-cost spy technology is allowing former shoulder surfing cheaters to steal valuable information, invade personal privacy, monitor and thrive at your expense.

Behavioral Spy Clues

Remember the shoulder surfing cheaters in school who always wanted to copy your homework and cheat on tests? They are still with us. They still cheat and steal. These former shoulder surfing cheaters have grown up, and they are still looking over your shoulder… with advanced technology. The good news is today you can fight back, and you won’t be called a squealer.

Letting them pick your intellectual pockets is no longer an option. There is too much at stake, and you likely have a legal responsibility to protect.

With help, you can identify behavioral activities which indicate spying is happening, or about to happen. You just have to trust your good instincts. Pay attention to that queasy feeling you get when:

friends or associates let slip information that no one should know;

when you suspect that your security manager isn’t skilled in handling industrial espionage;

when your staff seems friendly with your competitors;

if employees are talking about profitability;

or when you hear a key employee has entrepreneurial thoughts.

These are some common warning signs that usually precede information theft, electronic eavesdropping and general espionage.

You hated these shoulder surfing cheaters in school. You want to do something about it, but what?

Situational Spy Clues

Any time confidential or sensitive information is leaked to the media, it’s a clue, and there’s a problem. When your business and marketing plans become ‘common knowledge’ in your industry, it’s a clue. An employee leaves without giving notice and/or your competition is hiring your former staff, it’s a clue.

There are physical clues that may indicate electronic surveillance: a gift from someone you don’t trust; dust has fallen from the ceiling or wall onto the floor or furniture; a new smoke detector that wasn’t there before; employees report finding objects moved on their desks; pieces of tape found under conference tables; and reports of someone flying a drone near your location over the weekend.

There are also some very substantial clues, as well: you are being blackmailed; you are being surprise audited; you recently and abruptly lost one or more key clients; or you are outmaneuvered in negotiations a little too quickly.

Like that funny noise your car just started making, these issues are not going to solve themselves, they are going to get worse!

Spy Clues You Can Use

Those paranoid feelings might actually have good reasons! Don’t ignore the warning signs. Thoughts of being bugged, wiretapped, tracked, or of business espionage don’t normally occur to people.

Espionage Tradecraft is Sneaky

The Spy Clues Trick – Don’t Fall For It

If the spy thinks the target is suspicious, they plant a bug that’s easy to find. Most people will think their problems are over once a bug is found. They tend to keep it a secret, not wanting won’t admit to others they have been “had.” The real bugs, however, will remain in place and provide even better information. Why? Because the target, having found “the bug” will have a false sense of security, and will now talk more freely.

Bugging experts know how to keep their devices from being detected, from burying them in electronic equipment to putting them into the actual construction of the room. People who don’t want their conversations bugged frequently authorize sweeps of sensitive areas. What they find in those sweeps is defining the course of businesses and global allies.

Wide-reaching video technology is being used both for and against law enforcement, consumers, and the population at large. Some of it helps protect us, however, some of it is being used for voyeuristic and espionage purposes. Spy cameras hidden in expectation of privacy areas, like: restrooms, changing areas, gyms, hotel rooms, and schools, are reported in the news every week. Keep in mind, this accounts for only the spycams which arediscovered. The vast majority of these video bugs are never found, and the videos they capture are traded like baseball cards on the Internet.

You have an obligation to protect employees and other visitors to your premises, not to mention your children, your other loved ones, and yourself. Not doing so has led to expensive lawsuits, loss of customer goodwill, embarrassment, and humiliation to victims. A Recording in the Workplace policy and an inspection plan shows due diligence on the part of businesses. Online spycam detection training is available to raise personal awareness. With high-definition covert spy cameras and transmitters selling on eBay for less than $50. awareness training is a necessity, like learning to lock doors, and not click on suspicious email links.

School days are over. Today, You Know the Spy Clues.

You don’t have to be a victim. Those shoulder surfing cheaters and homework snatching bullies from your younger days only have sneakiness, and your indifference, on their side today. Their strong-arm strength is now flabby. Time to kick butt.

You have: life experience, excellent instincts, the law, and highly qualified security consultants who specialize in electronic countermeasures (TSCM), information security, counterespionage on your side. Using these tools can be very profitable, can increase your privacy and safety, and may even save your business.

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Kevin D. Murray CPP, CISM, CFE is a business counterespionage consultant and TSCM specialist with over four decades of experience.

Murray Associates is an independent security consulting firm, providing eavesdropping detection and counterespionage services to business, government and at-risk individuals.

Headquartered in the New York metropolitan area, a Murray Associates team can assist you quickly, anywhere in the United States, and internationally.